Stephen Sondheim

Born March 22, 1930 in New York, Stephen Joseph Sondheim was the son of Etta Janet and Herbert Sondheim. His parents were a clothing designer and a dress manufacturer, respectively. The two divorced early in Sondheim’s adolescence. After the divorce, Sondheim moved to Bucks County, Pennsylvania and attended a private Quaker school — where he wrote his first musical: Bye George. After graduating in 1946, he attended Williams College until 1950.

At the age of 10, Stephen Sondheim became friends with James Hammerstein, son of Oscar Hammerstein II, and became a mentee and protégé of the lyricist and playwright. Sondheim spent time with the composer as he worked on plays like Carousel and Allegro - watching his mentor create both greatly successful pieces and struggle with pieces that had less acclaim. Sondheim also stated that had it not been for Hammerstein insisting, he would not have written the lyrics for West Side Story or Gypsy. He joked that “had Hammerstein been a geologist” - he might have been one too. While at college, Sondheim was also mentored by American composer Milton Byron Babbitt, who encouraged him to study and dissect both musical theatre giants — Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin, and the classical music greats — Mozart, Beethoven, etc.

After college, he spent a few years writing for the television show Topper — a sitcom about a couple finding out their home is haunted by the previous owners and their dog who died in a skiing accident — and then went on to write incidental music for the play The Girls of Summer — a play about a 30 something woman who suddenly finds herself in a complicated love triangle after pushing romance out of her life for years. After meeting Arthur Laurents at a party, and with an endorsement from Oscar Hammerstein II, Sondheim had his big break, writing the lyrics for West Side Story which premiered in 1957. Two years later, Laurents and Sondheim worked together on the hit Gypsy.

Stephen Sondheim went on to write 23 musicals, win a Pulitzer, an Oscar, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, a Laurence Olivier Award, eight Grammys and eight Tony Awards — more than any other composer. Sondheim is considered one of the most important American composers — contributing to the sound and story of the American musical theatre. Frank Rich of the New York Times described him as “now the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theatre.” Sondheim passed away November 26, 2021 at the age of 91. (Which broke all of our hearts.)

• March 22, 1930 Born
• 1937  Sondheim begins piano lessons
• 1940 Parents divorce, moves to Pennsylvania and meets the Hammersteins
• 1950 Graduates university at Williams College, studies under Milton Babbitt
• 1955 Sondheim’s first Broadway effort Saturday Night is abandoned after the producer dies.
• 1956 Chosen to write the lyrics for West Side Story.
• 1959 Gypsy, for which Sondheim has written the lyrics, opens on Broadway.
• 1961 The film version of West Side Story wins 10 Academy Awards
• 1962 The first Broadway production with lyrics and music by Sondheim, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum opens. It wins the Tony Award for best musical — Sondheim’s first
• 1964 Anyone Can Whistle closes after just nine performances on Broadway
• 1965 Do I Hear a Waltz? Opens on Broadway
• 1970 Company opens on Broadway; this and all new Sondheim Broadway productions through 1981 are directed by Hal Prince.
• 1971 Sondheim wins his first Grammy Award for Best Score from an Original Cast Show Album for Company. Follies opens on Broadway.
• 1973 A Little Night Music opens on Broadway. For an unprecedented third year in a row, Sondheim wins the Tony Award for Best Score of a Musical. Gypsy opens in London with Angela Lansbury.
• 1976 Pacific Overtures opens on Broadway. Sondheim wins the Grammy for Song of the Year for “Send in the Clowns”.
• 1979 Sweeney Todd opens on Broadway
• 1980 Marry Me a Little, a musical revue, opens Off-Broadway
• 1981 Merrily We Roll Along has 16 performances on Broadway. Hal Prince and Sondheim end their partnership. Sondheim scores Warren Beatty’s film Reds.
• 1984 Sunday in the Park with George opens on Broadway. 
• 1985 Sunday in the Park with George is awarded the Pulitzer Prize. An all-star concert of Follies is performed at Lincoln Center
• 1986 Workshop performances of Into the Woods begin in San Diego
• 1987 Into the Woods opens on Broadway
• 1990 Five of Sondheim’s songs are featured in Warren Beatty’s film Dick Tracy. Assassins opens Off-Broadway.
• 1991 Sondheim wins the Academy Award for Best Song for “Sooner or Later” from Dick Tracy.
• 1993 Sondheim is a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.
• 1994 Passion opens on Broadway
• 1997 Sondheim accepts the National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts. More than 40 years after it is written, the first full production of Saturday Night opens in London
• 1999 A workshop of Wise Guys is presented by the New York Theatre Workshop
• 2003 Road Show opens at the Public Theater
• 2004 Previews of the first Broadway production of Assassins begin at Studio 54. (In 2001, a production was scrapped after the events of 9/11)
• 2007 The film version of Sweeney Todd, directed by Tim Burton, is released
• 2008 The fifth Broadway production of Gypsy begins previews at the St. James Theatre
• 2010 At his 80th birthday gala, Sondheim is surprised to learn that the former Henry Miller’s Theater on West 43rd St. will be renamed for him. The first part of Sondheim’s collected lyrics – Finishing the Hat – is published.
• 2011 The second part of the collected lyrics – Look, I Made a Hat is published.
• 2013 “Six by Sondheim”, an HBO documentary is released – it centers on the backstory of six great Sondheim songs.
• 2014 A Disney film adaptation of Into the Woods is released
• 2015 Sondheim receives the Carl Sandburg Literary Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
• 2020 Sondheim’s 90th birthday is celebrated with a virtual concert “Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration” and a nine page publication by the New York Times
• 2021 The West End transfer of Company opens on Broadway
• November 26, 2021 Sondheim passes away
• 2022/2023 A Off-Broadway and then Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along premieres. The New York Times described the revival as "the first convincing revival" of the "cult flop."